He's Here!!

Gabriel Adam Cutter

September 20,2007

9:19 am

9lbs

21 1/2 "

Update

So, I'm 3 days late and I've been having contractions for 3 days. I think this baby is enjoying torturing me. My contractions have been mostly mild and about 10 minutes apart on average. Not enough to produce a child. I keep hoping they will turn into something productive, but I haven't had any luck yet. I'll probably have another prenatal appointment with Merrie at the beginning of the week. I'll check back in a couple of days for another update.

Just Kidding

Alright, well, I think it is my lot in life to be pregnant with this child until he is 30. We were so excited when we woke up yesterday. Merrie was coming over at 10 and we were going to get this show on the road! Well, Merrie came at 10 and did all the things she was supposed to do. She even left me with some herbal and homeopathic supplements to take throughout the day to keep things going. She thought it'd be a couple of hours and then I should start to feel something. Well, a couple of hours passed and there was nothing. I continued to follow the regimen she gave me, but was getting little to no results. I talked to her during the afternoon and she gave me some new suggestions so I started on those. Merrie called back around 7:00 to see how things were going and I when I told her I was having no contractions she told me to not bother with the rest of the regimen because it was obviously not working. So, after a day of great expectations, I decided to hit the sack at 8:30 or risk clawing someone's eyes out! I've decided to just wait it out now. Tomorrow is my due date and it shouldn't be long now anyway, so we'll just let nature take its course and hope that nature does not drag its feet!

Light at the End

Well, at 9:00 this morning I called Merrie to see what was going to happen next. I am too miserable to wait any longer!! She told me to come in to her office today at 2:45 so that she could do an ultrasound to see if the baby was posterior. (His back facing my back .. a.k.a. the wrong way) She said if he was posterior, that could be what is causing me to have all these contractions. So, I went in this afternoon and he is NOT posterior. He is in the right position. His head is almost engaged and I am almost 4 cm dilated. I was sure that I was walking around at 5cm by now, but at least I am continuing to make progress. Every cm I gain now means one less I have to gain while in pain!! The baby looks really good in there and she said the placenta and everything looked mature and due. So, Merrie asked if I wanted her to do anything to help me along. I was all over that suggestion. She is coming over tomorrow morning to sweep my membranes and she thinks we will most likely have a baby by the evening. Now we are all in a tizzy to get things officially ready to be in labor tomorrow and have a baby. I was sent home with instructions to rest as much as I can tonight and get a good night's sleep. I should be good and rested for my marathon tomorrow.

He's still in there

I'm still pregnant. This was not supposed to happen! I woke up with contractions a couple of days ago and they persisted for the whole day. They were about 10 minutes apart from the time I woke up to about 6 pm. At around 6 that evening, they began to get closer together. At one point they were 2 or 3 minutes apart and I called Merrie to let her know. I didn't want to be heading into active labor without knowing it. She told me to continue timing them and then to give her a call in an hour. So, I timed and I called and after an hour they were still 4 minutes apart, but were not really getting any stronger. Merrie told me again to call in an hour. In the meantime, I was to have a wine cooler to see if that eased the contractions and to help relax me. I had the wine cooler and in an hour the contractions were only 10 minutes apart and not any stronger. I called Merrie again, and we decided I was not in labor. So, then I was irritated and disappointed and I decided that the best thing for me to do was to go to bed and sleep or risk biting someone's head off or having a complete emotional breakdown. So, I went to bed and woke up the next morning with no contractions and still pregnant. A couple of days went by with nothing happening and then last night I started having contractions again after I went to bed. After a couple of hours, I felt like they were becoming pretty regular and they were stronger than before, so I woke Joel up and had him time them for me. They were consistently 5 minutes apart for about an hour, but they never got any stronger than that. We decided to lay back down and see if we could sleep a little bit (it was about 3 am and I still had yet to sleep at all). I think I finally fell asleep sometime after 4 and when I woke up at 7, there was nothing happening ...... AGAIN!! Joel let me sleep in a little bit since I had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep and when I did get out of bed I was still without contractions. I have had some contractions throughout today, but nothing regular or strong or indicative of labor pains. I am now ready to kill someone and am trying very hard to be in a pleasant mood and not make Joel or Isabel suffer for my discomfort. Through it all Joel has been a champion husband. He has been up with me in the night, he has taken on almost all Isabel related responsibilites, he has done the grocery shopping, he has been very careful not to ask me the status of my contractions too often (even though I know he is always wanting to know) and he has spent lots of time rubbing my feet and my back. I am being well taken care of.
I am going to do my best to wait out the weekend and then I will call Merrie on Monday and tell her she has got to do something!!! This kid has got to come out ASAP! I'll keep you posted on what happens ... or doesn't happen.

Somethings Happening!!!!!!!

Well, several things have been happening since the last time I wrote an update on here. My last appointment with Merrie was last Thursday. At the time, things were looking very good and normal. The baby was moving well and sounding great and I was not dilated at all, but had effaced quite a bit. A day or two after my appointment, I began to have contractions. They were not bad, but they were consistent. I had them 15 minutes apart for about 4 hours one night and then the next day I had contractions 5-10 minutes apart for about 8 hours. That night, I called Merrie to inform her that I was having quite a bit of action although I did not feel that I was in labor yet. Merrie thought it was a good idea for her to come over and assess the situation, so she came over on Saturday night around 10:00. After an exam, she determined that I was making some progress. I was about 95% effaced and 2 centimeters dilated. That was good news. She told me she wouldn't be surprised if the baby came over the weekend. Well, I continued to have contractions. Things were never completely consistent. It was more like I'd have contractions for a few hours and then nothing for a few more hours and then the contractions would come back. I was in contact with Merrie every day so she knew what was going on. I talked to her last night after having contractions for awhile and she thought it was a good idea to move my prenatal appointment for this week up from Wednesday to Tuesday. So, Merrie came over today and did another exam. I am about 3 1/2 cm dilated and completely effaced. Merrie said that usually once someone gets to 4 cm, they will be in labor, so assuming that theory holds true for me I only have 1/2 cm left to go before I am in real labor!!! She thought that one more bought of contractions and I'd probably go into labor. The baby is sounding really good and moving well still. I had been having contractions at night and feeling really anxious so Joel and I were only getting about 3 hours of sleep. Merrie said the best cure for that was a wine cooler before bed. I tried it last night and it worked. I slept like a baby!!!! Merrie didn't schedule another appointment for me for next week because she didn't think we'd need one. That is very good news for me!! She is thinking this baby will come in the next week. She told me to stick close to home because she is pretty sure that once things get going, my labor will go really quickly. More good news for me!!!!! So, hopefully we will have this baby in the next couple of days! I will keep you posted on any new progress that I am making ..... hopefully, things will happen in the next couple of days and instead of telling you how dilated I am, I can tell you that I have a beautiful baby boy!!